In The Nick Of Time - AndyR Original (Remastered)

[BerryPatch]

Had to give this one another listen, flipping radio ready man. Flawless

[chapperz66]

Marvelous song of course Andy.  Absolutely marvelous.

I'm so glad you got the DAW bug in general, and studio one in particular.  I knew you would enjoy and race towards mastery of it, although I would have felt a bit personally responsible if you had invested in it but hated it after recommending it.  And talking of mastering - you certainly have the loudness issue totally under control. Beautifully in-your-face but clear and dynamic.

Awesome. 

Paul

[Farrell Jackson]

Beautifully written, performed, engineered, produced and mixed Andy! My ears say your new recording set up is fantastic. It makes me think it's time to take the plunge into DAW recording.

[TPB]

Think your move to the DAW has paid off I listened to mix and it is outstanding along with the song everything sounds like it has it's own space in the mix well done
Tim

[AndyR]

Aw guys
Thank you so much for your kind words
I feel quite overwhelmed actually...

I have loads of secrets to divulge, I've learnt so much in the last few months, not sure how to get all the info out...

For the song itself, it's as simple as this: I found Taylor Swift last December. I'm kind of in awe of her songwriting. I decided to relearn how to write based on what she does.

In The Nick Of Time was the first one off the A4 pad once I'd figured out some of what she does.
I've got several others since then, some may be better, or may not be, who knows.

Recording-wise, there's loads more to learn yet. I'm just trying to keep it simple at the moment.

Oh, before I forget, the bass - it's OK, a little messy here and there, but the sound/tone caused a HUGE amount of trouble during mixing. That's all I was talking about. I couldn't get the mix I wanted because of the bass part. In the end, it was either record the part I really wanted (with a less woofy bass sound) or compromise somehow to get the kick, bass and keyboards giving us something else. I went for the second option.

Mastering - that helped me reach that decision.

In Studio One Professional there's a "Project" view where you import mixes ready to master an EP or an album or... whatever (in my case 50 old raw unmastered mixes off the BR1600!).

So I was mastering Nick with the last four: Silver Pillow, I Give In, The Practical Gardener, and When I Try To Be Me.
Taking some of the bottom end off of Nick brought them closer in tone as if they could be on the same album, enabled me to get Nick louder without too much squishing, and it helped me decide the bass fitted well enough as it was (and it didn't go booming on the Russe stereo anymore!).

Listening again just now, I can still hear the mastering compromises I've made (pushing into the limiter) - but it was kind of deliberate, based on "sound" not "put up with it to get louder": it gives a pleasing scrunch on the loud bits. I'm kind of relieved you guys think it crisp and clear (it's not as crisp and clear as the actual mix is ).

Again, many thanks, and fingers crossed for the next thing whatever it is. I might even record several at once now.

(I'm actually remastering the old ones in batches, I might be doing that first before tuning anymore guitars - see how the mood takes me )

[Blooby]

This was utterly fantastic. I look forward to future posts if this is an early venture with Studio One.

A BIG wow.

Blooby

[kenny mac]

That is one stellar performance, im amazed by the quality of this.
The stuff coming out of this site at the moment us better than any of the shit out there hands down.
My phone is full of songs from this site.
Excellent  Andy.

[hardlock]

Fine song, bass and all. Everything's said already but I concur, it's a tremendous song in all regards! I Love it!

[StephenM]

funny you mentioned Taylor Swift...  about 10 years ago I watched a documentary on her and I was so impressed with her drive to be a singer songwriter at such a young age I got some, quite a bit, of her early music... I must say she is very clever.  Doesn't hurt that she is beautiful either..
I must say though her newer stuff doesn't really do it for me. 
Impressive story on how she actually got that good that young...

[hooper]

So good! A great performance and a very entertaining listen with lots of little surprise nuggets along the way. Obviously well thought out and a lot of attention given to details. Congratulations on this top-notch production!